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We’re Revealing Clues about the Immune System

Recent Nationwide Children’s studies of critically ill children are revealing important clues about the body’s immune response.

One study, conducted by Asuncion Mejias, MD, PhD; Octavio Ramilo, MD; Mark Hall, MD, and colleagues, was published in the December issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. It suggests for children with RSV infection, a weakened immune response correlates with more severe forms of the disease.

A second study led by Dr. Hall and recently published in the journal, Critical Care Medicine, showed a similar effect among critically ill children with influenza.

The body’s innate immune system serves as a first-responder to new threats, and is thought to drive the inflammatory response in many forms of critical illness. Traditional theories suggest critically ill children with infections would have an excessive immune response. However, recent evidence shows just the opposite, the immune response is suppressed.

Results from both studies indicate that monitoring a critically ill child’s immune function could have important clinical implications, such as the use of drugs that stimulate the immune system, changing the way these patients typically have been treated.

THE STUDIES AT A GLANCE

Study involving patients with RSV:

Team evaluated 66 previously-healthy children less than two years old and hospitalized with a first episode of RSV bronchiolitis

Found critically ill children with RSV admitted to PICU had significantly weakened immune system function compared with healthy children and infants with less severe RSV bronchiolitis hospitalized in the Infectious Diseases unit.